Life is tough, but we march on
by dark wolf in the night
Summary: A series of short stories. Will have some Maddian. Rated T for later chapters. Current story: Maddy and Rhydian's Christmas vacation.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N so this is going to be a collection of short stories, usually 3 chapters long. First story:**

**_If this was the truth, why didn't you say?_**

ch1

Rhydian was lying awake, still in disbelief that she had left him. It had been a year and a half, and he knew he should have gotten over it. But he couldn't. There was something he just kept wondering. 'Was I telling the truth when I said I loved her?' At first he had felt sure of it, but as time had passed, he had grown more doubtful.

The next night, he was going to find her, and he was going to get the truth. He packed a rucksack with food, a blanket, a compass, and a map. He knew where the wild pack would be from his time with them. He was amazed that he could still remember.

He left a note on his bed, saying he hoped to be back within a week but might not be. Then he set out, guided first by memory, then his phone, then finally the map and compass.

Maddy had just gotten back from hunting. She had been slow to adopt the wild lifestyle at first, but had discovered that it suited her. She would think of her old life from time to time, then realized there was nothing about it she missed. She had gotten over Rhydian almost a year ago now, much to her parents' relief.

She had just gotten back from a hunt when she heard a howl. 'Someone's decided to come through our territory again' she grumbled to herself, before going to see who it was. When she got there, she couldn't believe who it was.

'Rhydian, why?...'


	2. Chapter 2

Rhydian's POV

I had been running for days. My phone had died yesterday, so I had only a map and compass to go by. I hadn't eaten in days, I just needed to find her. To get the truth. So I kept running. I had to go through a town at one point, which was when I realized that I must look absolutely horrid.

Eventually, I got a faint whiff of a familiar smell. Maddy's smell. But of course it wasn't alone. There were other, stronger smells, most likely the border patrol. I was here, I had almost found her.

Suddenly, two guys came out of nowhere and tackled me. I tried to fight them, but I quickly decided I was no match for them. One of their fists hit me on the head, then everything when black.

When I came to, I couldn't believe what, or should I say who, I saw. Maddy was running towards me, but she did not look happy. She looked like she had changed a lot in the last year and a half. I had planned how this would go over and over in my head on the way here, but nothing prepared me for what she said next.

Maddy's POV

I couldn't believe it was him. WHY!? Why did it have to be him? I decided to ask him, and maybe rant a bit, just to blow off steam.

"Rhydian, why?... Why did you have to come here? News flash, I am OVER you! I have been for over a year now, so just go back to where you came from. What we said, we were wrong, or at least I was, and I assumed you were too. Now leave."

Rhydian's POV

I was stunned. I had assumed that she would be over me, but never that she would be so aggressive. I guess the wild has suited her better than it did me. So, partly out of shock, partly out of relief, I decided to just spill the truth and see what happened.

"Well, you know what, 'Mads', I'm over you to. You're right we were wrong. I only came here to see if you felt the same, and since you do I will leave. Now please tell these two to let me go."

Maddy's POV

"It would be nice if I could, but you are trespassing, and all trespassers must pay the price…"

**A/N Sorry for not updating sooner. I have had semi-finals all week and they have taken up all my free time. To the guest who was wondering, I will try to update stories every other day and have no more than a week between stories. Anyway, I now am on break, so I hope to be able to write more.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N so surprise! A new chapter 2 days in a row. This is the last chapter of _If this was the truth, why didn't you say?_, so enjoy!**

Rhydian's POV

The penalty for trespassing. Oh great, another thing I forgot. Maddy really has changed, if she would make anyone go through that.

"Come on, let's get this over with. I don't want to watch any more than you want to suffer this." She said.

"Yeah right. I bet you were hoping I would come, just so you could see me tortured for what I caused."

"No, I was fine to let you be. It turns out, I like it here more than I ever liked the human world. It is wholly your own doing what happens next, I just don't like being punished for showing leniency."

"Fine, but what is the punishment now? It varies from pack to pack so much."

"I don't like to say. Just be _very_ scared for your sanity, but not your life."

"You guys don't kill intruders? Not that I'm complaining."

"No, they decided that was to boring. Intruders must complete a series of extremely demanding tasks after being sleep deprived for five days by a lash."

"Where did you guys get a lash from?"

"It was stolen off some lazy prison guard when our alpha's son escaped 2 years ago."

"Wait, who is your alpha?"

"Some dude named Rhain. The punishment was his idea."

"What about Jana?"

"Dead. Her pack was forced to join his, she resisted, and was killed to make an example, to keep the rest of us in line."

"Fine, let's get this over with."

(6 days later)

Rhain's POV

"The Tame intruder will now begin the second phase of punishment: the chase!"

Rhydian mumbled "What chase?"

"You will be trying to escape me and 2 of my finest hunters while following a preset route. The path has been walked nonstop by Maddy over the past 3 days, her punishment for you coming here."

"And if I escape you, do I get to go free?"

"Yes, and if we catch you, you must start the course over until you escape. We really would like you to escape in one try, it's embarrassing having to give shelter to a tame."

"Fine, when do we start?"

"At sundown. Now eat up. It wouldn't be any fun if you have no energy."

(7:45 p.m.) Rhydian's POV

Well, this is just great. Running for my life along a path marked by the person who got me into this mess. Well, honestly, I should have just let her go. But oh well, here I am. Oh good, I think I see the end. Suddenly, Mark, Rhain's top hunter, lands on top of me. Great, back to the start again. This was the third time he got me with that. This time, I will find my own way to the end.

(9 p.m.)

Well, this is not going well. I found a path, but was caught before I could use it. This time, I know just where to go all out. Success, I escaped.

"Well done, for a tame." Rhain says, reluctantly.

"You may go now, but never return, or the punishment will be twice as harsh."

"Thank you, I have no wish to see any of you again." I say, still exhausted.

"Good boy, now run along, before I change my mind."

With that, I decide to run away as fast as I can, relieved that I escaped alive. A week later, I arrive at my foster parents' house, looking like a wreck.

"Where have you been?" my foster mom asks.

"I went to see Maddy, to see if we were wrong about what we said before she left."

"And…"

"We were. And now I can move on."

"Good, now lets' get you some first aid. What happened anyways?"

"Well, it's a long story…"

**A/N so I hope you liked this first story. There will be a bit of a wait for the next one, which will be up on dec 25. No spoilers though. bye.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N this is set after the end of season two, pretending that the last episode ended with Maddy agreeing to go on a date with Rhydian, and that Whitewood never showed up. This is also set 7-ish years in the future, or however far it has to be for them to be 21. Anyways, on with the story.**

Maddy and Rhydian's Christmas Vacation (or what could possibly go wrong now?)

Maddy's POV

"Come on, Rhydian, we're going to miss our flight!" I called upstairs.

"The plane doesn't leave for another 4 hours."

"Yeah, and the drive is an hour and a half, then half an hour to find long-term parking, then another half hour at security, then an hour to reach our gate. You remember how massive Heathrow is."

"Ok, ok, I'm almost packed."

"Good, now let's go."

(at the gate)

I couldn't believe it. After all this hassle, we were about to leave for southern France. It was the perfect Christmas vacation idea, just the two of us, spending three weeks in a nice little town.

Rhydian's POV

We were at our gate, waiting for the plane to start boarding. This Christmas was going to be perfect. Then the announcement came on, saying our flight was delayed two hours because of snow. Great, all this hurry, and now we have to wait.

(on the plane)

Well, after much waiting, we were about to take off. After we were in the air, I decided to sleep, and I think Maddy did also. Once we landed, we were the first to get off. We flew first class, thanks to Maddy's grandmother letting us use her frequent flyer perks for this trip. As soon as we saw the airport, we knew this trip was going to be good. There were Christmas decorations everywhere, and various banners that we could only make out parts of, thanks to a crash course in French we took.

We got our bags and went to the rental agency, where it turned out they lost our reservation. So, we decided to get the cheapest car that would hold our bags, which was still not very cheap. And I had though England was expensive! Maddy's aunt owned a small vacation house on the outskirts of some little town. When we got there, we found it had all the things a wolfblood could need, including a large fenced in area outside, perfect for full moons. We had passed a Christmas market on our way in, which Maddy made me agree to go to tomorrow. But for today, we just brought our things in and went to sleep. It had been a long day, but we were finally here.

**A/N to the guest that was wondering, I had the idea for a story like that, so I decided to write it. This story will have some more Maddian, no promises about future stories. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N so a present for you all, two updates in one day. Third chapter won't be 'till at least tomorrow, sorry.**

Maddy's POV

This Christmas market is amazing. Thanks to some last minute French lessons and a French phrase book, I can work out more or less what some of these things are. Suddenly, something grabs my eye. These little clay figurines with little sets and everything.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?'' I ask.

"ceux-ci sont appelés santons.'' The man selling them says.

"Combien sont-ils?''

'' € 40 pour un ensemble''

Well, that doesn't sound too unreasonable. I buy them and have the guy put them in a box. On the way out, Rhydian and I see some nice looking cakes made to look like fire place logs. They look good, and don't cost too much, so we buy one.

Back at the house, Rhydian cooks up a duck we bought earlier, and we agree to have the cake for desert. This has been a great Christmas. We have roast duck for dinner, who knew Rhydian could cook, then open the presents we brought, as well as the ones we got for each other, before moving on to desert. The cake is amazing, French people really can bake. After that, we fall asleep on the couch watching Christmas specials on DVD.

Rhydian's POV

This had been a great Christmas. Maddy got me these little figures called santons, which looked nice around the house. Half the presents we brought with us turned out to be this one French Christmas special, which we could only assume was some obnoxious prank our friends pulled on us. After that, we ate the cake we got at the market earlier, which was really quite good, then fell asleep on the couch watching that ridiculous show our friends gave us.

The next day, we decided to spend a day in the city, despite being exhausted and jetlagged. Halfway through it, however, we decided to head back, partly because of the noise, and partly because we spent all the money we brought for this outing. Back at the house, we ate some more of the cake, cleaned up the mess from last night, then decided to get some more sleep. Next week we would start being adventurous, but for now we were still exhausted from traveling.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Sorry for not updating sooner. This will be the last chapter of the Christmas story. Also, there will not be a lot of sappy romantic stuff in any of my stories after this one. However, I will try to give you a bit at the end of this one. Enjoy.**

(1 week later, Rhydian's POV)

Well, to say this week was interesting would be an understatement. We decided to try our big city outing again, this time with more foresight. That ended up being much more fun, despite Maddy dragging me along to the largest mall I had ever seen, then taking an hour to do some shopping by herself. I decided that that was the time to buy something in secret that I had been meaning to buy for a long time…

Now I have to get this picnic ready before she gets back from visiting with some of her mum's old friends from her trip here a couple years ago. Well, that's the last of it. My special surprise for Maddy. We have a trip to Paris planned for tomorrow, so we need to have everything packed by tonight.

(The next morning, Maddy's POV)

Well, add to the list of things gone wrong on this trip _missing our train to Paris._ It was no one's fault, really, we saw the number on our ticket and tried counting that many cars back from both ends. Both of those cars were full, and it was only then that we noticed that each car had a number on it. We ended up finding the right car, only to have the door shut in our faces. Now we have to find a train with two empty seats on it. Fortunately, the next train over has two seats at the back of a car that aren't taken, so we still will get to Paris on time. The train ends up going faster than I feel comfortable with, so I decide to sleep and not look out the window.

… I wake to Rhydian shaking me, saying we have to get off before we get locked in, at which I jump up and try to get out as quickly as can be managed with a giant suitcase. We get off the train and head for our hotel. Thanks to a long night on Trip Advisor, we have a room in a hotel across from a subway station and within sight of the Louvre. However, as soon as we get settled in, Rhydian tells me he has a surprise ready for me…

Rhydian's POV

I grab the picnic basket and tell Maddy to close her eyes as we walk out the door of our hotel room. About half an hour later, we arrive under the Eiffel Tower. I tell her to look up and then open her eyes. She is left speechless for about a minute, then kisses me. I then reveal the basket. I set out the cloth and food I packed on the ground off to the side, a little less in the way. After about ten minutes of slowly eating, I pull the small box I got at the mall out of my jacket pocket. I then lift the lid and show the contents to Maddy. The box contains a ring with a large sapphire set in the top surrounded by a ring of diamonds. The band is pure platinum, and shows off the gems.

"Maddy," I ask, "Will you marry me?"

"Of course," she says, "I was waiting for you to ask. I guess you do know romance. After all, this is the perfect setting."

"I was hoping you would say that" I say, and then we kiss.

**Fin.**

**A/N I was looking at the view graph for this story, and I was amazed that the number was over 1100. So please keep reading. Also, I need ideas for what to do next. Please leave reviews with ideas, and I will try to use as many as I can. Furthermore, future updates will be slower, just a heads up. Bye.**


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